Diversin is overexpressed in breast cancer and accelerates cell proliferation and invasion

Diversin was recently reported to play roles in Wnt and JNK pathways. However, the expression pattern and biological roles of diversin in human breast cancer have not been reported. In the present study, we found that diversin was overexpressed in breast cancer specimens by immunohistochemistry and western blot. Significant association was observed between diversin overexpression and TNM stage (p = 0.0036), nodal metastasis (p = 0.0033), negative estrogen receptor expression (p = 0.0012) and triple-negative status (p = 0.0017). Furthermore, colony formation assay and matrigel invasion assay showed that knockdown of diversin expression in MDA-MB-231 cell line with high endogenous expression decreased cell proliferation and cell invasion. Transfection of diversin plasmid in MCF-7 cell line increased cell proliferation and invasion. Further analysis showed that diversin depletion downregulated JNK phosphorylation while its overexpression upregulated JNK phosphorylation. In conclusion, our study demonstrated that diversin was overexpressed in human breast cancers. Diversin could contribute to breast cancer cell proliferation and invasion.